Recall that whatever lofty things you might accomplish today, you will do them only because you first ate something that grew out of the dirt.

Vengeance does not subtract any numbers from the equation of murder; it only adds them.

I know I have to write about the things that keep me awake at night.

The friend who holds your hand and says the wrong thing is made of dearer stuff than the one who stays away.

Back then I was still appalled that God would set down his barefoot boy and girl dollies into an Eden where, presumably, He had just turned loose elephantiasis and microes that eat the human cornea. Now I understand, God is not just rooting fo the dollies.

But children robbed of love will dwell on magic.

Codi: Gives you the willies, doesn't it? The thought of raising kids in a place where the front yard ends in a two-hundred-foot drop? [referring to cliff dwellings] Loyd: No worse than raising up kids where the front yard ends in a freeway.